Page 182

“I wasn’t expecting this,” he whispered, nuzzling her cheek. “I’ll admit I’ve fancied you since we first met, but I never dreamed—” His confession turned to a gasp when the mass that had just softened stirred anew.

“I-I should have warned you!” Vela blushed brightly, pulling herself off him while she could still muster the will. The aftershocks hadn’t yet faded, and already, she ached for more. “My people don’t really have casual encounters, so if it’s been a while since we’ve last…connected, our body chemistry compensates.”

“Are you saying you excrete an aphrodisiac?” Fyn’s smile looked twice as devilish on his true lips. “Of your many impressive adaptations, that’s probably my favorite.”

He dragged Vela to the edge of the bed and flipped her, twining their fingers to pin her in place and dipping into her just far enough to tease. It took all of Vela’s not-inconsiderable resolve not to whimper.

“Let’s make a game of it, shall we?” he growled, pressing further only to pull back. It bordered on cruelty. “We test the limits of this little trait until one of us can’t take it anymore. Winner is decided when the other cries mercy.”

A dangerous proposition, given how stubborn they both were. But then, the past week had been rife with risks; what was one more?

“Challenge accepted.” Vela arched downward, driving him deeper, and the game commenced.

* * *

“SurRrenDerrr QuietTtly!”

The words sizzled through an amplifier, more static pops than voice. Vela woke to siren lights spilling through the windows, limning Fyn’s silhouette in ruby with each pass. He sat slouched at the edge of the bed, fully clothed.

“You havvVe tennn MinNnuTes to Tturn yourssselF innN!”

The fog fled Vela’s mind, and she furled upright to place a hand on Fyn’s shoulder. He twisted to face her, a twitch of a smile tugging at one cheek.

“Kalis tracked us down,” he said, voice threadbare from the night they’d shared. “He and the local authorities have us surrounded. They’ve probably set up patrols around the whole sanctum. I’m quite the prize, after all.”

Vela grimaced at the ill-timed joke. “If we slip past them, we could return to the tunnels,” she tried. “We’ll hide until the fuss dies down, then?—”

Fyn cut her off with a kiss deep enough to drown in. Even after it ended, she struggled to catch her breath. “This won’t fall back on you.” He touched his forehead to hers, sorrow glistening along his snowy lashes. “I’ll tell them you were about to apprehend me when they interrupted, allowing me to turn the tides. It’s an insult to your talent, I know, but it will keep your record clean.” A tear broke free, and he blinked back the rest. “When you next check your contacts, you’ll find information on fifty-seven families impacted by Seriville, along with the amounts I intended to return to them. You have enough zenna in your account to make it through half the list, and the rest will appear shortly. It’s properly encrypted, so you won’t raise any alarms if you’re careful and clever. As though you could be anything less.”

Vela had too many questions to voice and even more objections, so she summarized. “I can’t do this without you.”

“With that glow and those claws?” Fyn squeezed her hand. “You can do anything.”

When he tore away, Vela scrambled to her feet, unwilling to let the conversation end there. Her vision dimmed and twisted, swaying like a spacecraft in an asteroid storm. Sore as she was, she’d dismissed the pang above her wrist as another in a sea of strained muscles.

She noticed the blink of a tranq tag right before the world went black.

epilogue

Three months,eleven days, and six hours after waking in Central’s medical wing, the thought of returning to Regnum Maris still churned Vela’s stomach.

Events had transpired exactly as Fyn predicted they would. He’d dressed and posed Vela before turning himself in, so no one questioned his testimony of her near-victory. The reward for his capture had gone to Kalis, of course, not that Vela minded. After fourteen years as a bounty hound, she was finally ready for a change. Or she would be, after finishing her final hunt.

Vela crossed another name off her list and steeled her nerves as best she could, then blinked to a parking garage on the outskirts of Waldorf’s Cradle. She could tell from the pressure that the miasma was dense enough to choke her, but she removed her respirator anyway. For a moment, the tangible pain eclipsed the abstract. Too bad only one ache faded.

She shooed away the memories from her last visit as she searched the neighboring complex for apartment 115-A. Seconds after she rang the bell, a Marisian woman answered, gills flaring in surprise.

“I wasn’t expecting a visitor.” She smoothed her rumpled skirt. “Can I help you with something?”

“Other way around, assuming you’re Ms. Anyta Longsworth,” Vela said, adjusting the script she’d recited over fifty times before. “I’m here on behalf of my colleague, goes by Fyn.”

“I…I can’t believe you’re really here,” the woman replied, blinking wildly. “I was certain, when they arrested that poor man…”

After all Seriville Services had put Anyta’s family through, she deserved an attentive ear, but the mere mention of the arrest sent Vela’s mind to Tenibris Delta, where Fyn was being held. Vela could never visit the prison for fear of drawing unnecessary scrutiny. There would be no attending the trial, either, assuming Central granted one.

“Seems I’ve forgotten my manners.” Anyta’s bright chuckle jarred Vela back to Regnum Maris. “You must be exhausted after travelling so far. Please come in. I’ll put a kettle on.”

Having endured a version of this conversation on no less than twenty planets, Vela knew her protests would go unheard. So she allowed her host to lead her to the sitting room, where she’d wait patiently until the tea was brewed and the Marisian equivalent of cookies were arranged on a tray.